Be safer, retrofil this switch on your older equipment

I had a serious problem a short while ago with a jointer I just bought, starting unexpectedly, creating serious damages but more importantly it could have cost me my life or at least some very serious injury.You can read the story here:http://lumberjocks.com/topics/40359#reply-477310

Until yesterday morning when helping some one else with this switch, I used only the paddle of the switch that I installed on the existing equipment in my shop.Yesterday I understood how to correctly wire this switch so that it would function as designed.No wiring instruction come with the switch causing people like to stumble when installing it.

The reason for the accident with my jointer is that by accident, while moving it the machine, the switch was set in the “on” position causing the motor to start as soon as I plugged the cord in.

The switch from Woodstock has an integrated magnetic coil which hold the contacts in as long as there is power to the switch. As soon as ,for any reason, the power is interrupted the contacts are open/released preventing the motor the start again by itself when the power is restored.

In addition this switch is very easy to install in an existing box and to wire: there are four posts on the switch, the two wires coming from the wall connect to the two bottom posts , the two wires going to motor connect to the top post. Just make sure to connect hot to hot and neutral to neutral.

I extremely strongly recommend to all of you to retrofit your old equipment with this switch. It could save your life, injuries or at the very least expensive repairs and aggravations.

All my “high power” machines are equipped with magnetic coil thermally protected switches. Power cannot be applied accidentally…it has to be a deliberate act upon a recessed button. If the power goes off during use the machine will not restart by itself when the power comes back on. The switches are very expensive so it’s not uncommon to see shortcuts taken that are just not appropriate. I purchased a lot of machines that were in a shop fire caused by bad wiring. When I examined the machines, I was not surprised that the shop burned.

Thank you for pointing this out. When I leave the shop I also throw the master breaker off.

Dan, the big advantage of this switch is that it provides the safety of a magnetic switch to older machines which are not equipped with one for a extremely economical price.Cost cannot be an excuse to not retrofit older machines with this switch.

I need one of these for my drum sander build. I want to wire the sander 220V. (1.5 HP motor). I got the 110V/220V version from Peachtree for my band saw. Planning on changing voltages on that to 220V as well…

Joe, I am not sure that I understand your question.As I wrote above the switch is very simple to wire; on the bottom you connect the tow wires from the wall, on the top you connect eh tow wires going the motor.iF YOU ASK IF THIS SWITCH NEEDS TO BE MOUNTED RIGHT ON THE MACHINE, MY ANSWER IS NO.

Joe, if you wanted you could cut the female end off an extension cord and wire it to this switch. I did this on my router table with a similar switch, and used a female end with 3 outlets so I could plug in a shop vac along with the router and switch both.